RSSNo Cell Phone-Cancer Risk, Large Study Says
By Ed Oswald | Published December 6, 2006, 3:13 PM
In the latest study to address the issue of cellular phones and cancer, a Danish survey of more than 420,000 cell phone users who first subscribed to service in the early 1980s through the mid-1990s suggests that there is no link.
Researchers at the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology followed 420,095 cell phone users who subscribed to service between 1982 and 1995, and were tracked through 2002 to spot any incidences of cancer. Compared with the general population, there was no appreciable difference.
Recently, studies have come out giving conflicting conclusions as to the risk of cancer among cell phone users. A study released in August of last year showed no risk of brain cancer. Another in January, said there was no risk of brain tumors, but a study released in March contradicted those findings.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently looking into these reports, citing concern with the methodology of the brain tumor study. And in Finland, government researchers are conducting studies on the risks of cellular radiation on human skin.
Even so, the Danish study is the largest to date to tackle the issue, and may for the first time offer some fairly concrete evidence that cell phones do not put users at risk for cancer. In fact the authors of the study contradict the findings of the March study.
"The methods used suggest that the use of cellular telephones does not pose a substantial risk of brain tumors among short-term or long-term users," the authors write.
Published in the December 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the study found that 14,249 incidences of cancer occurred in study participants. However, the rates were no high than what was considered normal for tumors of the brain, throat, ear andand eye, or for incidences of leukemia.
What was found was a lower risk for smoking-related cancers, however this was likely more to do with socio-economic status than the cell phones themselves. Early adopters of cellular technology were of higher income, and smoke at a lesser rate than the general population.
"The narrow confidence intervals provide evidence that any large association of risk of cancer and cellular telephone use can be excluded," the researchers said, meaning its likely that there is no risk of cancer at all from cell phone use itself.
I think the issue is not cell phone radiation causing cancer, but something else. Could it be the higher ambiance of RF radiation in our environment causing some changes in cells other than heating? Cancer has increased to the point where it is a multibillion dollar health care business. Will it continue? I think so, as well as the radiation. Sometimes the cause and effect are not directly related as the studies imply.
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|Whole cancer thing is much higher in these times because of solar radiation (poles switching) that will most probably happen sometime in this century.
The rate is slowly increasing though it's still not alarming. Till the D "day" happens and EM field around Earth weakens till poles switching is completed.
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|So they concluded that the increase in cancer is no higher than the normal rate but NORMAL people use cell phones. Remember the studies done with lab animals and school kids where the cancer rate increased. Goto rfsafe.com & lessemf.com for safety devices.
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|I would agree that Cancer may not be increased or decreased by cell phone use. I would like to see a study that looks into the effects that cell phone RF has on the retina.
If any of you know some old amature radio people think about what kind of glasses they wear (keep in mind that is just from the RF leaking out of the back of the unit).
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|Aluminum-foil hats will protect against that. :)
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|LOL: Yeah, so will a properly constructed antenna and feed line thats properly tuned for minimum SWR, to keep rf to a minimum in the shack. Youd probably get more damage to your retinas sitting 3 feet from the tv, or this monitor all day.
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|You mean that extra foot I grew wasn't because of my cell phone? Must be the water.
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|It's not a tumor! It's a bump from holding the cell phone so tight against my head.
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|Between North America and Europe, I wonder how many USD and euros are wasted on these completely pointless and downright stupid studies.
There are now about 12 studies, 6 from the US and 6 from Europe, and this finding again puts the results to a tie--half of them claim cell phones are bad, half say they cause no risk. If they are this inconsistent, who's to say we will ever, ever know for sure?
Point is, quit wasting millions of dollars/euros on these "studies" when you could use the money to lower the @#$% National Deficit!!! Seriously, if we have any more of these studies, we should start running studies to see if those who run studies about cell phones increasing the risk for brain cancer have an increased risk for brain cancer :D
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|As long as money is offered through federal grants, people will continue to use it to study mating habits of flies and swimming techniques of bricks.
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|I have to agree with both of you and add the fact that with so many people tied into cell phones (we all know we can't live without them), how many people are actually going to stop using them because of yet another study? Like bourgeoisdude said, put the money toward something truly useful, but knowing the gov't like we do, they'd spend it on studies like why people get toe-jam or naval lint right ds0934? BTW, love those swimming bricks.
Ever notice how new studies that contradict the old ones come out about every 5 years or so? The eggs being good/bad for you debate always comes to mind, every so often they reverse their findings. I personally believe that these "scientists" have to find reasons to justify keeping their jobs, so they just keep reresearching the same old stuff over and over.
Ok, I think I got a little off track there. THere's the whole analog vs. digital cell phone debate, being that analog was the cancer problem, seems to me most calls are digital now, with relatively few being analog anyway, so it seems that it's pretty much a non-issue.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any points as I'm sure I don't have all the facts.
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|No doubt many government studies are nonsense and merely government largese for the educated. However this study has at least two significant implications.
One, the phone industry would be subject to frivolous lawsuits filed be those folks that just can't live without cell phones. Two, many cell phone users would like reliable data about the risk of using these phones.
The interesting sidenote of this study suggests that higher income folks seam to contract these cancers at a lesser rate than lower income persons.
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|If you had read the article, you would have noticed that the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology conducted the study.
Thats odd, isnt it! An institution who's primary function is to conduct research into cancer... is conducting research into cancer!
I like when you said: "There are now about 12 studies, 6 from the US and 6 from Europe, and this finding again puts the results to a tie--half of them claim cell phones are bad, half say they cause no risk. If they are this inconsistent, who's to say we will ever, ever know for sure?"
You're right, bourgeoisdude. Why bother with scientific inquiry at all?
We dont have a consensus in the scientific community yet, there are 12 studies, lets just stop while we're ahead! Brilliant!
Why bother looking into things like cellphone radiation that can potentially shorten peoples lives?
Yeah. A waste of money.
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|Do you also support Intelligent Design?
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|It is when it isn't producing any conclusive results. This just ties the number of "I"s with the number of "Nay"s when it comes to the number of studies that find for or against it.
I think that the original studies were fine and dandy. No questions from me here that the cancer risk from cell phone usage is a legitimate concern. The problem is that we have done this study so many times that it has become obvious that we are not getting any conclusive results. So--why do we keep doing new studies every year? Aren't 12 studies enough?!?
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|Um...what does that have to do with the topic here? Also, if you would be criticizing me for believing in Intelligent Design, you'd be criticizing the majority (history?)--so I must be missing something...
Let's stick with the subject of the cell phone cancer risk study.
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